o. They immediately ran off into a copse of trees and bushes, which
bordered the road on one side.

"Why, Beechnut!" said Stuyvesant, "the oxen are running away."

"No," said Beechnut, "they are only going down to drink. There is a
brook down there where they go to drink when they are at work in this
field."

Oxen appear to possess mental qualifications of a certain kind in a
very high degree. They are especially remarkable for their sagacity
in finding good places to drink in the fields and pastures where
they feed or are employed at work, and for their good memory in
recollecting where they are. An ox may be kept away from a particular
field or pasture quite a long time, and yet know exactly where to go
to find water to drink when he is admitted to it again.

Stuyvesant looked at the oxen as they went down the path, and then
proposed to follow them.

"Let us go and see," said he.

[Illustration: OXEN DRINKING.]

So he and Beechnut walked along after the oxen. They found a narrow,
but very pretty road, or rather path, overhung with trees and bushes,
which led down to the water. The road terminated at a broad and
shallow place in the stream, where the sand was yellow and the water
very clear. The oxen went out into the water, and then put their heads
down to drink. Presently they stopped, first one and then the other,
and stood a moment considering whether they wanted any more. Finding
that they did not, they turned round in the water, and then came
slowly out to the land. They walked up the bank, and finally emerging
from the wood at the place where they had entered it, they went toward
home.

When they reached the house the cattle went straight through the yard,
toward the barn. Beechnut and Stuyvesant followed them. Beechnut was
going to get them some hay. Stuyvesant went in with Beechnut and stood
below on the barn floor, while Beechnut went up the ladder to pitch
the hay down.

During all the time that Beechnut and Stuyvesant had been coming up
from the field, conversation had been going on between them, about
various subjects connected with farming. Stuyvesant asked Beechnut if
Phonny could drive oxen pretty well.

"_Pretty_ well," said Beechnut.

"Does he like to drive?" asked Stuyvesant.

"He likes to begin to drive," said Beechnut.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Stuyvesant.

"Why, when there is any driving to be done," replied Beechnut, "he
thinks that he shall like it, and he wants to ta